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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Micah 4:8 - 4:13
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Zion Established Throughout the Earth
v. 8. And thou, O tower of the flock, the term being applied to a tower of refuge for flocks in time of danger, here as a fort from which the great King and Shepherd, the Messiah Himself, observes and guards His flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, the impregnable palace of the Church of Christ, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion, the glory of the New Testament Church being compared with that of the kingdom of Israel under its mightiest king; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem. Since the earthly Jerusalem is always at the foundation of the type, the vicissitudes and afflictions of the Jewish capital are made typical of the experiences of the Lord's people.
v. 9. Now, why dost thou cry out aloud? at the approach of the Chaldean invasion. Is there no king in thee? no visible representative of the Messianic promises?. Is thy counselor perished? this name also being applied to the reigning member of the house of David?. For pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail, the true believers in Israel feeling the deepest grief and sorrow over the desolation of the kingdom.
v. 10. Be in pain and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail, the catastrophe of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the exile of the people being imminent; for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, after it had been taken by the enemies, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon, being dragged into captivity; there shalt thou be delivered, namely, when Cyrus issued the decree setting the Jews free and thus laid the foundation upon which later arose the New Testament Church; there the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies, so that the people of the covenant would be restored to the Land of Promise, the land where the Messiah was to appear.
v. 11. Now also, namely, at the time of Judah's deepest humiliation before and at the time of her exile, many nations are gathered against thee, in bold hostility, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion, namely, in malicious joy over her downfall.
v. 12. But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, the object which He has in mind in thus dealing with His people, neither understand they His counsel, which intended to lead His people to repentance and to lay the foundation for a renewed Church in which the believing Jews were to be the nucleus; for He shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor, the enemies being heaped up for destruction in the Lord's judgment.
v. 13. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, according to the Oriental custom of having the sheaves threshed out on the open threshing-floor with the aid of oxen; for I will make thine horn iron and I will make thy hoofs brass, giving to His people a new and unconquerable strength; and thou shall beat in pieces many people, not by victories of the flesh, but by those of the spirit; and I will consecrate their gain, what the enemies had gotten by robbery and plunder, unto the Lord, as devoted to Him, and their substance, all their possessions, unto the Lord of the whole earth, whom the heathen would eventually have to acknowledge as the one Ruler, even if they consistently refused to accept Him as the God of their salvation. Cf Php_2:11.